VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- After 21 NHL seasons, Mark Messier still gets the most out of his goals.

Messier scored for his 1,700th career point Thursday night in the Vancouver Canucks' 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

"It's starting to pile up," Messier said of his latest milestone. "It's really exciting. More so than that though, it's exciting just being in the hunt now."

Messier made it 2-0 with 8:11 left in the second period when he came down the right side and beat Guy Hebert between the legs with a trademark wrist shot off his left leg.

Felix Potvin stopped 29 shots for Vancouver, 5-1-2 in eight games.

"It's getting interesting now," Messier said. "We've been playing pretty well in the last few games."

The Canucks are unbeaten in three games (1-0-2) this season against Anaheim. Potvin, 4-1-2 in his last seven games, has allowed one goal in six of nine starts.

Potvin came close to a shutout for the second straight home game, but Kip Miller scored with 8:59 left. Miller's seventh goal came on a weak shot from behind the net that went in off Potvin's skate.

"There's no place to be sour about the shutout," Potvin said. "This is a huge victory for us and that was one we needed."

The Canucks scored the only two goals of the second period despite being outshot 12-5. Anaheim missed a great chance to get back into the game after Trent Klatt was assessed a double-minor for high sticking.

The loss ended a three-game undefeated streak for Anaheim, playing its fifth straight without injured leading scorer Paul Kariya.

"Potvin played solid," Anaheim's Teemu Selanne said. "I think he got a little lucky, too, but the good goaltenders get lucky.

"I just couldn't get it through, but you have to give credit to those guys," Selanne said. "They played hard and they played smart and they had great goaltending. We had our power plays and we had some chances."

Alexander Mogilny's 16th goal, on a 25-foot wrist shot, gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead. It was Mogilny's first point since returning Tuesday from a shoulder injury that kept him out for eight games.

Brad May rounded out the scoring with his first goal in 15 games.

Anaheim defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky extended his point streak to four games with an assist on Miller's goal. Tverdovsky has four goals and eight points in seven games.